The iPhone model set to be announced today will indeed have a fingerprint sensor, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal late Monday night. The sensor will be used to unlock the phone in lieu of a password, passcode, or the facial-recognition features used in some Android phones.

This iPhone would be far from the first phone to integrate fingerprint-scanning technology; the Motorola Atrix 4G released over two-and-a-half years ago featured such a sensor on its sleep/power button. The WSJ states that Motorola stopped pursuing the technology because of customer complaints over functionality.

The use of Apple’s passcode lock screen has become so ubiquitous, especially after the BYOD surge for business users, that it makes sense to streamline this security gate (personal pet peeve: it seems every time I type four digits into the lock screen, it only captures three of them. Every time). The WSJ also suggests the fingerprint sensor use could be broadened to areas like authorizing payments for a connected bank account or credit card.

Apple’s announcement event for the new iPhone and iOS 7 is set to commence at 10am PT/1pm ET. Keep both eyes on our liveblog with Senior Product Specialist Andrew Cunningham for up-to-the-minute information.

Update: An alleged photo of the new iPhone's user guide has been uncovered by Nowhereelse.fr (by way of MacRumors) referring to the former home button as the Touch ID sensor. The button lacks the graphical rounded square that has adorned it on past versions of the iPhone.

Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston

Hopefully this will be an optional feature in light of the inevitable bug issues. Though we can hope the technology is more mature than when Motorola included it - Apple tends to be pretty good at picking up technology as it gets ready.

Awesome. So not only did Apple pioneer that relatively insecure four digit passcode in regards to mobile devices, they are now implementing the most unreliable innovation in biometrics: personal computer mounted fingerprint readers. Easy to fool and hard to use. What a deal!

Though in all fairness, at least a four digit passcode is a lock. With that said though, anything aside from a true passphrase or password with encryption is just not good enough so Apple should really be steering people towards using passphrases and away from easily duplicated pin codes.

edit: added the reference to mobile devices, even though that should be obvious based on the conversation. I also added content to my original edit such that folks that are branding-conscience don't think I'm treating Apple unfairly.

One circulating rumor is that Apple may incorporate a combined fingerprint scanner and NFC chip. Combine that with iCloud Keychain and all those iTunes accounts and credit cards, and they could make a push for the iPhone as the only essential item in your pocket.

And despite my interest in the potential for this combination, I share the NSA concerns above. Where is the fingerprint info stored? How much goes back to the Apple servers, and how much is kept only on the phone? And what are the safeguards around the fingerprint data?

I suppose that locks me into Android then. At least my silly tweets is of no interest to anyone. But my fingerprint? As one of them damn foreigners, I suppose that would the first things scooped up by NSA.

Yay! Now the marketing companies (and NSA) will be able to maintain a fingerprint database on everyone and they won't even have to ask!.

When I was in the fourth grade, the local county told parents it would be a great idea to have their kids/students fingerprinted because it could lower the rate of dissapearences. We all had to comply, and for our efforts were given a "neat" little card with our picture and fingerprint on it. Mine was stored along time ago...The navy also took all finger prints during my physical and stored those too.

And this whole, "Oh look what the NSA can do now with such and such new tech device..." it is getting really old, and no longer surprises anyone...

Yay! Now the marketing companies (and NSA) will be able to maintain a fingerprint database on everyone and they won't even have to ask!.

When I was in the fourth grade, the local county told parents it would be a great idea to have their kids/students fingerprinted because it could lower the rate of dissapearences. We all had to comply, and for our efforts were given a "neat" little card with our picture and fingerprint on it. Mine was stored along time ago...The navy also took all finger prints during my physical and stored those too.

And this whole, "Oh look what the NSA can do now with such and such new tech device..." it is getting really old, and no longer surprises anyone...

You know, I told this same story about officials fingerprinting kids (myself included) in my elementary school decades ago. These officials gave the same reasoning for the procedure - it will make your children safer and decrease the chances of children going missing/kidnapping. Our elementary school was near a major Air Force military base, and many of the parents did not seem to have issue with the proposal.

My friends still believe I made up the story because it sounded so bizarre - fingerprinting children.

I imagine today there would be widespread suspicion of children having their prints taken and stored by any government agency under the pretense of safety.

I haven't used an iphone in a while so I'm wondering: How many of you use multiple fingers to hit the home button?

The thumb makes sense most of the time, but I feel like the index finger would get a lot of use if the phone's sitting on a desk or other possible situations where it'd be easier than grabbing it and planting your thumb down.

I assume there will be a backup security option, because if the reader fails, you'd be screwed, or if you mangle your finger.

I would hope so.I worked for a company who sold a fingerprinter scanner that would encrypt local files. I remember the calls we used to get when the device would stop working (which it did...often). The only solution was "Sorry, those files are gone forever. Do you want to buy a new one?" There was no backup, so when the device inevitably failed everything was gone forever.

The whole fingerprint/iris password trend is a mere display of "look how technological we've become" that completely surpasses safety and usefulness. Agreed it's unique to every single person, but it's also unchangeable. It's like being forced to use your last name or your birthday as a password/pin.

I haven't used an iphone in a while so I'm wondering: How many of you use multiple fingers to hit the home button?

The thumb makes sense most of the time, but I feel like the index finger would get a lot of use if the phone's sitting on a desk or other possible situations where it'd be easier than grabbing it and planting your thumb down.

I wonder how it'll handle that.

You enroll multiple fingers, laptops let you store ten per user.

Secret tip: The computer has no idea if all ten fingerprints are actually from the same person. So you enroll everyone with a need to access a particular device, which shouldn't be more than one or two people.

I don't get it why everyone is making such a fuss about it. When I arrived at Nairobi airport they wanted fingerprints AND they scanned my eyes. Same for many other airports. Even small border Kenya/Tanzania checkpoints scanned my fingerprints.

Awesome. So not only did Apple pioneer that relatively insecure four digit passcode, they are now implementing the most unreliable innovation in biometrics: personal computer mounted fingerprint readers. Easy to fool and hard to use. What a deal!Though in all fairness, at least a four digit passcode is a lock. With that said though, anything aside from a true passphrase or password with encryption is just not good enough.

The 4 digit passcode is better than you suggest I think unless it is possible to connect via the dock connector and send passcodes quickly. Otherwise unlocking a 4 digit passcode by brute force will take way too long. Especially if Apple have built a delay into the "failed to unlock" path which they seem to have done.

Yay! Now the marketing companies (and NSA) will be able to maintain a fingerprint database on everyone and they won't even have to ask!.

When I was in the fourth grade, the local county told parents it would be a great idea to have their kids/students fingerprinted because it could lower the rate of dissapearences. We all had to comply, and for our efforts were given a "neat" little card with our picture and fingerprint on it. Mine was stored along time ago...The navy also took all finger prints during my physical and stored those too.

And this whole, "Oh look what the NSA can do now with such and such new tech device..." it is getting really old, and no longer surprises anyone...

You know, I told this same story about officials fingerprinting kids (myself included) in my elementary school decades ago. These officials gave the same reasoning for the procedure - it will make your children safer and decrease the chances of children going missing/kidnapping. Our elementary school was near a major Air Force military base, and many of the parents did not seem to have issue with the proposal.

My friends still believe I made up the story because it sounded so bizarre - fingerprinting children.

I imagine today there would be widespread suspicion of children having their prints taken and stored by any government agency under the pretense of safety.

I haven't used an iphone in a while so I'm wondering: How many of you use multiple fingers to hit the home button?

The thumb makes sense most of the time, but I feel like the index finger would get a lot of use if the phone's sitting on a desk or other possible situations where it'd be easier than grabbing it and planting your thumb down.

I wonder how it'll handle that.

If I'm holding it in my hand, I'll use my thumb.If its on my desk I'll use my finger.

And I may use my left or right hand in either case, depending on position.So that's 4 digits for me, plus 4 for Mrs Pitmonster.

And your finger may be at an angle depending on position, or if you're holding it in landscape/portrait.

And if I'm wearing smart-gloves...

Is this going to be a technology that sounds good in theory, but an absolute nightmare to use in reality?

And despite my interest in the potential for this combination, I share the NSA concerns above. Where is the fingerprint info stored? How much goes back to the Apple servers, and how much is kept only on the phone? And what are the safeguards around the fingerprint data?

Even if all the fingerprint data is stored locally on the phone, there is nothing preventing the NSA to knock on Apple's door and demand that they extract the data and deliver it to the NSA. Whatever safeguards Apple has built into the system, they are legally obliged to cooperate fully with NSA requests. While for US citizens there is some legal protection, every iPhone 5S user outside the US can be absolutely sure that his Apple fingerprint ID will end up in a NSA datacenter, there is no need to speculate.